Lower alkyl isobutyrates are widely used in industrial syntheses. For example, methyl isobutyrate can be dehydrogenated to methyl methacrylate, which is then polymerized to a polymethyl methacrylate useful in sheet form or in a variety of other molded shapes.
Lower alkyl isobutyrates are conveniently prepared by the reaction of propylene and carbon monoxide with a lower alkanol. A wide variety of catalysts has been suggested and used for this reaction, including a combination of palladous chloride and triphenyl phosphine. While this catalyst system gives a high degree of reaction of the components, the resulting product mixture is a combination of straight-chain alkyl butyrate and alkyl isobutyrate. With increasing commercial interest in the alkyl isobutyrate compositions, a need exists to maximize the percentage of the branched composition resulting from this reaction.